Development of numerical methods for Vlasov simulations of plasma

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24740338
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Space and upper atmospheric physics
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: MINOSHIMA Takashi 独立行政法人海洋研究開発機構, 数理科学・先端技術研究分野, 研究員 (00514811)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 宇宙プラズマ / ブラソフシミュレーション / 磁気リコネクション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We developed a Multi-moment advection scheme for Vlasov simulations of magnetized plasma. The scheme treats zeroth to second order piecewise moments of a physical profile as dependent variables to preserve its shape as much as possible. It enables us a long time calculation of linear advection and solid-body rotation problems with little numerical diffusion, which is a necessary ability for Vlasov simulations of magnetized plasma.
We applied the scheme to electromagnetic Vlasov simulations. In addition to linear problems, we succeeded in simulating nonlinear problems such as magnetic reconnection. Our code clearly described a complex structure of the plasma velocity distribution function around the reconnection region. These benchmark tests show that our scheme is a powerful technique for kinetic plasma simulations based on the Vlasov model.

Free Research Field

超高層物理学